Points to Keep in Mind in All Your Communication Activities

¨            People like to have their own beliefs confirmed.

¨            Good communications demand clear objectives and goals.

¨            People pay more attention to those who come across as convincing.

¨            Specific and concrete statements work best in your communications.

¨            People enjoy stories or anecdotes about people (including them­selves!).

¨            Readily understood, specific, and relevant facts and figures convey your points best.

¨            When pondering the merits of what they’re hearing or seeing, people are very much influenced by the opinions expressed by friends and respected acquaintances.

¨            When a lot of information is involved, communicate it in smaller chunks over a longer period of time (this may mean more than one briefing or communication package).

¨            Redundancy helps when it comes to hammering home key points (sometimes you can do this effec­tively by repeating exactly what you just said).

¨            Every day words and shorter sentences work best for most issues of com­munication.

¨            Good communications generally involve positive or affirmative wording (watch out for the ‘no’ or ‘not’ problem).

¨            Simple analogies, images, anecdotes, or examples help your communi­cations.

¨            Assumptions in your com­munications can be dangerous.

¨            Communications that come across as attempting to ‘impose authority’ (including moral authority), don’t go down well.

¨            Flow charts, charts, diagrams, graphs, maps, and pictures help commu­nications, es­pecially when they’re not overloaded with information and make good use of colour for high­lighting.

¨            Leaving people with a good final thought they can take away from your briefing or document will help your message remain longer in their minds.